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<blockquote data-quote="Which Tyler" data-source="post: 1215169" data-attributes="member: 73592">My apologies - I had read your post as having much more aggressive and dismissive non-verbal communication (as in &quot;everything WT has just written is irrelevant because Borthwick has Freeman as his first choice OC&quot;); and responded in kind.Personally, I haven&#039;t read that Borthwick is particularly interested in Freeman playing OC - just a LOT of fans loving it (and Steward at 12, and Earl at 12, and even Marcus at 9 [but never 15])I read the &quot;Freeman at 13&quot; stuff from Borthwick to be emergency cover - just like Eddie was with Earl at 12 or Ford at 9 - a bit of leeway in case of a card or injury whilst low on bench options.I then see fans getting (what I would consider) to be carried away, reading far too much into it, and assuming that means that Freeman should be the starting OC (or Ford the starting SH, or Earl/Steward the starting IC, or...)As for how much say Borthwick has on club selection - AFAIK we don&#039;t actually know. The England head coach has always been able to apply pressure, to take an imagined example - if the HC was telling Ben Foden &quot;I see you as a scrum half, not a full back. I will only select you as a scrum half, not a full back; and I will only do so if you&#039;re playing scrum half for your club&quot; - then Ben is going to go back to his club and do his best to get game time at scrum half, rather than full back. Same for if the HC is saying &quot;I want to see you trialled at OC for a few matches, see how well you adapt to it at club level, and it&#039;ll give us some flexibility in team selection and improve your chances&quot; - then the player would take that message back.Whether he can tell the club DoR directly &quot;Ben has to play SH, and if you don&#039;t, you&#039;ll be in breach of contract!&quot; seems... unlikely. But that contract may give his opinion / request more weight.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Which Tyler, post: 1215169, member: 73592"] My apologies - I had read your post as having much more aggressive and dismissive non-verbal communication (as in "everything WT has just written is irrelevant because Borthwick has Freeman as his first choice OC"); and responded in kind. Personally, I haven't read that Borthwick is particularly interested in Freeman playing OC - just a LOT of fans loving it (and Steward at 12, and Earl at 12, and even Marcus at 9 [but never 15]) I read the "Freeman at 13" stuff from Borthwick to be emergency cover - just like Eddie was with Earl at 12 or Ford at 9 - a bit of leeway in case of a card or injury whilst low on bench options. I then see fans getting (what I would consider) to be carried away, reading far too much into it, and assuming that means that Freeman should be the starting OC (or Ford the starting SH, or Earl/Steward the starting IC, or...) As for how much say Borthwick has on club selection - AFAIK we don't actually know. The England head coach has always been able to apply pressure, to take an imagined example - if the HC was telling Ben Foden "I see you as a scrum half, not a full back. I will only select you as a scrum half, not a full back; and I will only do so if you're playing scrum half for your club" - then Ben is going to go back to his club and do his best to get game time at scrum half, rather than full back. Same for if the HC is saying "I want to see you trialled at OC for a few matches, see how well you adapt to it at club level, and it'll give us some flexibility in team selection and improve your chances" - then the player would take that message back. Whether he can tell the club DoR directly "Ben has to play SH, and if you don't, you'll be in breach of contract!" seems... unlikely. But that contract may give his opinion / request more weight. [/QUOTE]

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